Actions are Louder than Words

Great bible study last night. I love it when our class is able to pull away from the religion side of things and talk about the true way we should be spreading God's love... Sure we should be knowledgeable of our faith and even of science for the sake of truly understanding and being able to communicate both sides. But having that knowledge simply for the sake of argument is not Christ's way. Living our lives humbly and as Christ would - making a statement by our actions - is what we should be focused on the most. Gary told a story about how they were out eating one night as a group after a bang up performance of the He Touched Me passion play. There was about 30-40 of them... and in the restaurant a couple of tables over was a couple. One person in the He Touched Me group poked fun at a lady's weight at the other table. It was a quick comment, but made none the less. Gary went up the salad bar and was approached by a man who asked if they were from the play - Gary told him yes, asked him if he'd seen it, enjoyed it... the man said yes. Then he proceeded to say "I heard what you all said about that lady, and it wasn't nice..." OUCH. That ONE comment, made by ONE person effected the entire group. That one negative remark made all of them look like hypocrites, and it gave Christ a bad name. All of the hard work of what the passion play was intended to do - spread the love of God, was down the tubes to that man who saw one act of hate. As Christians, do we focus more on arguing our point to people through words, or do we focus on showing people Christ through loving actions? Does how we live our lives and act in places other than church portray the person we claim to be? James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”